The ARC TV special
by bhut
Summary: The sequel to my "Responsa" fic - the TV interview of the ARC stuff...
1. Chapter 1

**The ARC TV special**

_Disclaimer: None of the characters (save for reporters) are mine, but belong to Impossible Pictures._

_Note: This is a sequel to my "Responsa" fic, so unless you read that first, this won't make much sense._

-1-

"Hello, everybody! My name is Cole Loren, and I'm here with the ITV-crew to interview members of the Anomaly Research Center, the government agency that had sponsored the amazing new book – 'The world of the giants', which brings to live such familiar creatures as Apatosaurus and Allosaurus in a new light! Our main contact at the Center, of course, is Ms. Jenny Lewis, the Center's head of PR! Ms. Lewis-"

"Hello, Cole", a youngish, somewhat heavyset, but still very good-looking brunette smiled at the camera. "It's a pleasure to have you and your crew with us today. Please, follow me – we'll take you to what you want to see."

"Good," Cole grins excitedly, and discreetly elbows his camera man, who accidentally tried to zoom in his camera on Jenny's Lewis big butt. "We can't wait to see what our people got to respond to France's latest scientific break-through-"

"You're aware," Jenny says coolly, "that the French would never have been able to achieve their 'break-through', if it wasn't for us? Due to some classified circumstances they were able to tap into what we've been working with for months now, and thus, should there be any race or competition, they'll most likely lose? Not that there will be any, of course, because it's been a lot of decades, if not centuries, since the last time our countries had been at active political odds, but still..."

"Of course, of course, Ms. Lewis" Cole says with an easy-going grin, "but you have to admit, that the French specimens are very impressive."

"From what we know at the ARC," Jenny Lewis half turns around and stares at Cole with a bit of mockery in her eyes, "the French have acquired several giant weasels, midget pigs, lizards with odd frills, and various samples of grassy plants, sedimentary rocks and highly concentrated salt. Is that correct?"

"Why yes it is," Cole agrees, still in his easy-going mode. "You seem to be well-informed about the French going-ons. In their public conference, they spoke that they're busy establishing a base there, complete with several aircraft and all-terrain vehicles-"

"Considering that they may have ended up on a rocky island in a metaphorical sea of salt flats where the concentration has passed the line of 'deadly' several thousand years before, I want to wish them good luck and lots more equipment than whatever they have now," Jenny is still unshaken. "Now, I admit that we haven't had as much as success as the French – relatively speaking, of course – in exploring the future, but we like to think that we have a better grip on the past than they, as a compensation prize, you know?"

"Well, why don't we hold our judgement until we saw what you got-" Cole's voice trails away and his eyes widen somewhat as they emerge from the corridor into a small circus-like arena complete with a bigger corridor opening on the other end. "Hmm, nice place, very Roman-like. You're not going to throw us to the lions, are you?"

"Oh, we haven't gotten any lions – yet," Jenny smirks slightly while firmly re-directing the TV's camera from her face towards the bigger corridor. "But speaking of Rome-"

-2-

Out of the bigger corridor on the other side, a mammoth – not a woolly, a Columbian mammoth – emerges. It got two leashes in its' trunk with a terror bird on the end of each leash. A pair of ARC employees is riding on the mammoth as well. They're Abby Maitland and Connor Temple, a young couple and obviously in a relationship, as they help each other get down from the mammoth.

"Hey, everybody!" Connor waves cheerfully at the camera. "We're Connor and Abby, and we're responsible for palaeontology and biology sections of the ARC. Anyways, here are three of the ARC's specimens, so to say – a Columbian mammoth and two terror birds. We, ah, aren't exactly sure about them per se – there were roughly fourteen genera and eighteen species of them, but are reasonably sure that they are-"

"Connor, you're bubbling – sorry about that," Abby shushes her colleague and turns fully to face the camera. "So, uh, you have questions about them?"

Cole has been briefly stunned into speechlessness, but has bravely recovered:

"Wow. Simply wow. This isn't an elephant, is it? Although, if it is a mammoth or a mastodon, I – and our audience, of course – would have expected it to be more, well, woolly."

"You're thinking of his cousin," Connor shrugs, after glancing furtively at his girlfriend. "This branch of the mammoth family was more like modern elephants, so no, well, wool. Sorry if you haven't expected our guy not to be woolly-" he gets elbowed by Abby again.

"No, no, this is very impressive," Cole has recovered from the shock and looks over the mammoth and the terror birds again. "Did it take you long to train it to hold-"

"Uh, it's definitely a he, especially if you look from behind," Abby says, sounding perhaps a bit insulted, "and no, it didn't take long for him to learn this – he's as smart as any modern elephant, maybe even smarter." She pauses. "Especially if you compare him to the terror birds – they do not quite have the brain power of the Tower's ravens, you know?"

"Really? Well jolly good for us, for our Tower, the Tower's ravens and the ravens' keepers!" Cole says slowly. "But anyways, they do not need big brains to be stars, now do they? In fact, that is not required for almost anyone, not just terror birds – but anyways. They may be smaller than the mammoth, but are still present impressive, what with beaks, and talons-" one of the terror birds flaps its' wings, revealing the spiky windclaws "-and do they actually have claws? I guess the dinosaurs really are alive, just wearing chicken suits, he-he."

"Sir," Connor looks like he wants to go into a rant, but restrains himself. "The birds are specialized descendants of one very particular group of meat-eating dinosaurs – the raptors. If you were to see, say, these two next to a different dinosaur – not a raptor – there would be no more similarities than between me and, say, a kangaroo, see?"

"A different dinosaur? Oh, sounds exciting," Cole smiles. "Are we going to see one, them?"

"Eventually," Jenny cuts in, "but first, our Cainozoic friends have something to show you!"

Abby claps her hands and climbs back onto the mammoth. Then, the mammoth begins to walk around the arena in a full circle, still leading the terror birds, before disappearing back from the corridor from which they have initially come.

"Well," Cole says after seeing the mammoth's real end. "That clearly was a he. Does anyone else feel jealous?"

"Well," Connor says, wincing, "why don't we go on? I think we were talking about a dinosaur?"

-3-

The ITV team, flanked by Jenny _and_ Connor now walk down yet another corridor and come to an enclosure with a genuine dinosaur, not a terror bird or some sort of a similar creature. Helen Cutter nee Hunter, a woman of about Jenny's age and the author/illustrator of a new prehistoric picture book is currently standing close to the enclosure, keeping an eye on both the dinosaur and the approaching people.

"And this is Helen, of whom I believe you are already aware," Jenny says grandly, even as Helen sends a mild glare in her direction. "As part of her agreement with the ARC, she's here to assist us with all matters prehistoric, you know?"

"Really?"

"Yup, and I'm making plenty of sketches too," Helen adds wryly, "but anyways, Connor Temple here has some words to tell you about the Center's resident dinosaur."

"Oh, do tell," the camera briefly turns to face Connor fully, who blushes from embarrassment, but manages to turn the camera back in the direction of the enclosure.

"Right," he says, his voice somewhat shaky but sure, "this is Dragon, he's a dracorex dinosaur."

"A what dinosaur?"

"He's a member of a rather obscure branch of plant-eating dinosaurs, the bone-headed pachycephalosaurs," Helen interjects smoothly. "A very respectable dinosaur family to be sure, but not a one that's been heard about, are we right?"

"Yeah, true, but why do you call them bone-headed-" Cole begins, then his cameraman shows him a zoomed-in look of Dragon's head. "Well, that's interesting. The bugger's head is shaped like an anvil!"

"Yeah, but it acts like a hammer!" Connor interjects quickly, and then freezes again when the camera begins to swing back towards him. "I mean, the fellow's name may be dragon, but he acts more like a mountain sheep!"

"Really? How so?"

"If he is annoyed or scared," Helen speaks once more, "he lowers his head and charges you flat-on. Since he weighs considerably more than you or me or, say, a terror bird, a head slam from him would not be something from which you'd be able to recover by yourself!"

"Really? How do you know how much they weight?" Cole asks her, curious.

"Oh, we did it as a part of a scientific process," Connor says quickly. "We'll probably give you the footage afterwards."

"Oh, indeed?" Cole appears to be genuinely excited. "Hah, the French never had done something as halfway exciting as we have!"

"That's true," Abby agrees from behind him and his crew. "But first, here are the final stars of our show!"

-4-

The camera whirls around and zooms onto Abby, standing, apparently, alone.

"Down, please," Jenny firmly pushes the camera downwards, where it zooms upon the happy family of Sid, Nancy and their pups. "These are some of the ARC's cuter mascots, the diictodon."

"They are quite cute, almost like little rodents," Cole says, genuinely curious once again, "but are they dinosaurs?"

"No, they're mammal-like reptiles, cousins to our own ancestors," Connor speaks up, "and they existed during the Permian, long before such dinosaurs as Dragon over there walked there.

"Hah," Cole says thoughtfully even as the camera's view switches several time between the diictodon family and the dinosaur. "An interesting revelation. Most people tend to ignore the time that was before the dinosaurs, when trilobites ruled the earth – Mr. Temple, is something wrong?"

"Oh no, no," Abby hurriedly says. "Anyways, we have some footage of the whole diictodon family at supper, so why don't you take a look?"

"Oh sure, sure," Cole says, intrigued. "Lead on!"

As the ITV crew leaves, Connor mouths to Helen "trilobites?" Helen just shrugs.

_To be continued..._


	2. Chapter 2

**The ARC TV special**

_Disclaimer: None of the characters (except for the reporters) are mine, but belong to Impossible Pictures._

_Note: The future world is actually from The Future Is Wild episode "The Vanished Sea"._

-5-

"And we're back, with ITV and the Research Center's crew after several exciting episodes of the daily life of the Center! Ms. Lewis, as the public relations' specialist of this outfit, has managed to get her boss to agree to co-op with us in releasing those to the general public, but only through official channels! So all of you sneaky little characters who reckon they can just make pirate copies off the big screen are in for a shock! You know what I mean," Cole grins at the camera. "Anyways, we're here with the big man on the Center, Mr. James Lester!"

James Lester just gave Jenny and others a Look, and then turned to Cole and others. "Good, now where were we? Oh yes, some time ago I and my French counterpart had made a bet that me and mine wouldn't be able to reach him and his all across that time – and space, I think. Anyways, today is the day when I am going to prove him wrong, and I'm inviting you good people along." He turns around and walks away from the camera towards the time anomaly manifestation device (Connor's new version of it, anyways) with Connor already working on it (other people are assisting him with it) already, preparing to turn it on.

"Connor, are we ready?" Lester asks, perhaps a bit testily. "We do not want to open a time anomaly to the bottom of a prehistoric sea, now do we?"

Connor glares slightly at Lester, but then calms down. "No, not so much," he says somewhat quietly. "We've worked on these co-ordinates for quite a while, we`re going to get it right, to be sure." He turns to the camera. "Have you explained to them the technological details, though?"

"You mean how we'll have to turn the cameras and microphones off before going through the time anomaly and turning them back on the other side? Sure, it may sound somewhat weird, but you are the experts," Cole says, not too easily, but agreeably enough. "Incidentally, if according to you some technology seems to suffer when coming in contact with time anomalies, how the French were – or are – able to set up a semi-permanent base-"

"Well, that is what we're going to find out, aren't we?" Lester says flatly. "This may be all fun and games to you, sir, but there is also a very strong element of national...competition as well. Therefore, I implore you _all_ to be at your best behaviour, if we, that is will manage to get there, as opposed to, say, the Triassic time period, or whenever. Connor Temple?"

Connor glares at the older man, but activates his invention anyways – and a time anomaly manifests into being in all of its' chromatically white glory, right in the ARC's backyard.

-6-

The camera turns on, and the view in it is an expense of dazzling white plain, with all other colours being almost absent. The camera zooms in, and the view changes to that of some sort of a rocky mountaintop, or an islet, right in the middle of that white expense. A hand belonging to an unidentified – yet – person carefully shifts the camera's view from the white expanse to the right, where a military-type camp is being in the process of recovery from the ARC crew's visits. Most people there are of a military-type, but several look more like civil servants, and their facial expressions upon seeing Lester and others range from startled to unhappy, but all are definitely surprised. One of them, apparently the leader, approaches Lester and begins to speak with him in a smattering of French and English.

For several moments the camera stays on them – and then rapidly shifts towards Danny Queen, who looks rather unhappy being back in this particular time of the future.

"So, Mr. Queen," Cole starts to say unabashedly, "what can you say about this time and place? From the reports overseas, there was the idea that you were the main specialist about it before the French took over-"

"And they're pretty much welcome to it," Danny says curtly. "This here is Corsica, several million years in the future. The Mediterranean sea has dried up, as you can see, leaving behind all the salt, so frankly, I was very lucky in ending up here, rather than out there, where I would have probably died before the sunset or noon," he shivers. "Anyways, there's one more thing that I want to show you – look down."

The camera zooms downwards and sees that the stony soil of the island is crisscrossed by various cracks. "That's where the giant weasels hide," Danny says helpfully, "and the local lizards lay their eggs as well. You do not watch where you stand – and you can get caught in a very uncomfortable situation, to say the least."

"Spoken from experience, eh?" Cole asks unabashedly. Danny is not amused, but before he can reply, Jenny does.

"To get back to the question about time anomalies and technology, why don't you take a look at your watch, instead? And the audience should remember that that watch was digital!"

"Son-of-a- pardon, Ms. Lewis, but it's broken!" Cole says, half-irritated and half-surprised.

"Yes it is, isn't it? Watches, digital cameras, quite a few of other devices just break down if you go through a time anomaly," Jenny says smoothly. "If they're turned off during the process it's different, but in some cases it is impossible."

"I'm glad to hear the lively interview," Lester startles both Jenny and Cole, "but it's time to leave. I'm afraid our hosts aren't very hospitable, and this is a foreign country – well, a foreign island – after all. We will have to leave."

-7-

"Well, boss, you got to admit – this was awesome, even if didn't see any giant weasels!" Cole's cameraman says some time later, after they have left the ARC building behind them. "I mean, the dinosaur, and the mammoth, and those rat-like lizards with beaks – that was neat!"

"Yes, yes it was," Cole says calmly. "The payoff will be great, as the whole episode with the French was clearly a political episode, but, honestly, under the current circumstances that is quite all right!" He leans back and sighs, dreamily. "God, this has been one of the best interviews ever!"

-8-

"This has been one of the worst days in my life ever, not counting my brother's death," Danny Queen growls as he – alongside other members of the ARC field team – relaxes in the Center's lodge. "Did Lester have to cast me as the resident expert of futuristic Corsica of all things?"

"I reckon it was the media's doing, and besides – you wanted to be in the spotlight, for once."

"No, I didn't. I thought that Helen would hog the spotlight-"

"No, I do not," Helen says calmly, "but just for the record – I understand what you were feeling: if the place had been late Permian, or Triassic, or Eocene, then it would've been me wishing that we were anywhere else but then."

"I thought that you hated the Carboniferous the most?" Jenny cautiously asked, earning some sort of grudging curiosity from Danny, and not-so-grudging one from the others.

"Oh, I sort of got over it, eventually," Helen shrugs, then adds, carefully weighting her words. "Look this isn't some sort of a pleasant conversation story – why don't I explain it during the evening, possibly after Connor has his say about Lester?"

"It's not bloody fair!" Connor erupts almost immediately. "That situation with the Mesozoic sea didn't even happen on his watch! Can't he cut me any slack-"

"Excuse me," a printed copy of some calculations was put onto the table, before Connor. "This should put things into perspective."

"What is it?" Connor asks, confused, as he looks down on it. "Donald Trump's audit?"

"No, France's national bill for sustaining their time anomaly till now," Sarah explains helpfully. "Lester has already seen it, though, and is taking the original and bunch of other papers to the PM to explain it to him and to further drive our home advantage over the French."

"To constantly sustain a time anomaly costs that much?" Connor incredulously asks. "Couldn't they have worked solar power into the equation or something? I mean, the climate in that place – if there is any place to build a good, reliable solar power generator, it's there. After all, what catch can there be?"

"Well, in late Permian there were sandstorms that literally obscured the sky and earth – one of them had almost killed me," Helen says helpfully. "Maybe in this place it's salt-storms or something."

There is a pause as everybody imagines a salt-storm. "Sounds terrible," Jenny shudders. "Almost as bad the K/T extinction."

"So," Sarah abruptly shifts the topic. "How about we all go out to the nice bagel shop down the street and try to wash the taste of salt out of our mouths? Anyone?"

The others exchange looks. "Why don't we walk out and stretch our muscles a bit before a time anomaly alarm or something?" Jenny shrugs.

"It's a deal!" Connor grins as everybody slowly gets up to leave.

The End.


	3. Chapter 3

**The ARC TV extra – Dragon**

_Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, but belong to Impossible Pictures™._

_Note: This takes place _before _the main events in the previous two chapters._

"So then," Abby said quickly, glancing at Jenny, "how do we carry-out Lester's order to the best of our ability?"

There was a definite pause as everyone just stared at her. "What?" Abby said flatly. "If I won't be extra-polite in this situation, I'll be extra-rude, and I am sure that nobody here wants _that_. So, let me try again – does anyone have any ideas about how we'll run this thing?"

"I got nesting barn owls in the attic," Caroline spoke-up calmly. "Maybe we can bring them here and somehow or other convince the TV crew that we don't have anything fancy here going on?"

"No," Jenny replied quickly before Abby could, "we're doing a confession here, so we've got to do the obvious and impress our potential audience, rather than to confuse them."

"Then I don't see the problem!" Connor said excitedly. "After all, we've got a mammoth and a pair of terror birds, and Dragon-"

"Excuse me, but who's Dragon?" Helen interrupted for the first time since Lester had left. "Or, rather, what is its species?"

"You haven't met Dragon yet?"Abby said incredulously, her irritation at Caroline forgotten. "You really should – he's really a fine-looking dinosaur, and-"

"What Abby means is that Dragon is a Dracorex dinosaur," Connor hurriedly interrupted Abby, "that is to say that he's a marginocephalic dinosaur; no, he's a-"

"He's a bleeping sledgehammer, that's what he is," Becker spoke–up flatly. "When Abby and I were capturing him, he managed to get a good head slam at me and flung me into crate-loaded truck without any effort. Considering that it had a spearhead stuck in its shoulder and wasn't in the best of shapes, I think that we were really lucky not to have any broken bones or anything."

"Since this was just a week before we had to go and rescue Abby's brother from the future, you may have a point there, mate," Connor admitted reluctantly. "Still, maybe Abby has a point: Dragon might have been just scared, because he found himself in a totally new environment-"

"Connor," Jenny said slowly, "I haven't met Dragon either, but if it, or he, is prone to charging when scared, then we might have a problem when putting him before the cameras..."

There was another pause as everyone tried to visualize what could happen, if some probably-delicate TV equipment would be matched against a Dracorex that was designed by nature to smash things.

"I think we'll go and see Dragon now," Jenny finally broke the silence.

Despite any of the _potential_ charisma that Dragon possessed, he didn't seem to have any great store of intelligence – the dinosaur was quite content to be enclosed in a relatively modest enclosure, chew through the daily amount of food provided to it by the ARC... and that was it, actually, since Dragon didn't really demonstrate any other hobbies or interests in his life.

"You know, once they spend any large amount of time with him and get over the fact that this is a real – and alive – dinosaur, they will realize that he's about as exciting as a domestic cow," Jenny finally spoke after several moments of observation. "I mean, I didn't expect him to do tricks, but he could simply be more aware of his surroundings, like, say, the wild ducks are. Is he always that oblivious?"

"Er," Connor looked away with a shifty look in his eye, "it is more like he's that confident. He _is_ capable of learning – or at least he's capable of recognizing danger."

"What do you mean?" Jenny pressed on.

"I'll show you," Becker replied before Connor could. He walked over to a sound recorder and turned it on. Immediately, a melodious neighing of a horse sounded in the silence. Almost at the same time, Dragon charged at full strength, and when he struck his enclosure, the whole fence shuddered from the impact.

Jenny goggled, while Helen and Danny exchanged looks. "That's not good," Helen muttered to Danny, seemingly oblivious just to _who_ she was talking to. "The dinosaur is a one-hit wonder, and its hit is of a wrong kind."

"So, we'll adapt," Connor said quickly. "We'll diminish his involvement in our role down to a minimum, and have the mammoth to be the main attraction on one hand, and maybe Rex, Sid and Nancy on the other. I mean, Lester already had put them down as dependents or something, so it's not like we'll be able to keep them under wraps for too long in any case."

"Oh, he found time to do _that_?" Jenny muttered crossly, but Caroline chose this moment to interrupt her by turning to Abby:

"And just how smart is that mammoth?"

"Very. Much smarter than Dragon, actually," Abby admitted uncomfortably.

"Then I have an idea that may be able to work. But it'll involve the terror birds as well as the mammoth-"

"Considering that the previous plan – to focus on the dinosaur for the TV reporters – is clearly sunk, we're listening," Jenny spoke, before Abby could.

"Then here is my plan..."

_To be continued?_


	4. Chapter 4

**The ARC TV Extra – Terror Birds**

_Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, but belong to Impossible Pictures™._

_Note: This takes place _before_ the main events in the first two chapters of this story._

"You want to do what?" Abby screeched loudly as soon as Caroline finished telling her idea. "It is... it is... it is impossibly ridiculous, that's what! I mean, the term 'bird brain' didn't appear out of thin air – just look at Dragon over here: he's only distantly related to the birds and yet the more time I have to compare him to our mammoth, the more I realize just how different the brains of mammals and dinosaurs must be-"

"No arguments here, not from me, but birds _can be trained_," Caroline said softly. "You know, how hawks and falcons are, or were, trained to hunt? Well, our terror birds don't appear to be any different from those hawks and falcons, once you get over the whole giant and flightless thing-"

"But then there's this whole bigger-than-us thing," Connor shook his head. "I mean, their beaks are like sabres or something, one good blow with it, and we're finished."

"But we won't be controlling them – the mammoth will," Caroline didn't back down. "And I think it was already pointed out that it is more than enough intimidating to get the terror birds into behaving straight."

"The mammoth is smart – _very_ smart especially when compared to Dragon," Abby didn't back down either, "but is it smart enough to control a pair of terror birds?" She blinked.

"Actually, yes, I mean it is certainly _strong_ enough," Helen said quietly. "As long as we try to play the awe factor over anything else, we might just get through it with minimum losses of prestige and embarrassment over the fact that an average herbivorous dinosaur is basically a more prehistoric version of the modern cattle."

"That's not true, Dragon is not a bull or a cow," Connor said emphatically, "and what about Rex and Sid and Nancy? They're older than Dragon – that is to say, they come from a much earlier time period than he – and they quite smart and curious."

"That's it," Jenny said slowly. "First, we will be showing off the mammoth and the terror birds. Then, we will introduce Dragon, and Connor, try to play upon the whole dinosaur-bird connection, would you? Finally, you bring Sid and Nancy, and possibly Rex, and play upon them predating Dragon and the dinosaurs in general, got it?"

"Yeah, but aren't we forgetting something? How exactly are we going to get the birds-"

"If you're worried about the literal fact of putting the birds on leashes, I can do that, with some assistance, of course," Helen spoke up thoughtfully, "and speaking of it, can we check on the mammoth first? If it won't co-operate, then the whole plan is worthless, basically."

"Oh, he will," Abby said, getting excited for the first time since Lester's declarative statement. "You just follow me and see for yourself!"

The mammoth's enclosure (as well as the one for the two terror birds) wasn't too far from Dragon's, but it was proportionally bigger, and as one could see, it was much more used. There were several logs, each with a cable tied around it, and several balls of different colours and similar toys.

"All right," Abby rubbed her hands and stepped into the enclosure. "Prepare to be impressed!"

She walked closer to the mammoth, which was very apparently attentive at what was going on, and spoke to him:

"Hey, friend, we're going for a walk!"

Immediately, the mammoth's trunk unfurled, carefully wrapped itself around Abby's waist and pulled her up, on to his head and neck.

"Did you know that she could do this?" Sarah asked Connor. "'Cause frankly, just a bit more of this, and they could possibly impress the TV-crew by themselves."

"No," Connor said grouchily, "I didn't. Hey, now that Abby can control the mammoth, care to deal with the terror birds?" he turned to Helen.

"Just let me get a couple of appropriately strong leashes-"

"Here, will these do?" Caroline said quickly. "I got a couple of Michael's spare ones."

Helen critically looked over them. "I suppose that we can try. Now where are the birds in question?"

"Over here," Danny pointed 'helpfully'. "Now how are you going to do this?"

Instead of replying, Helen took the leashes, stuck one of them in her belt and beckoned to Abby and the mammoth. Sarah thought that she saw the other woman mutter something under her breath, but before she could point it out, Helen was already in the terror birds' enclosure.

"Wa-ak?" the two flightless avians immediately perked up somewhat and began to approach the semi-retired time traveller with outstretched necks and beaks.

Something cracked softly – it was a twig that fell under a mammoth's foot. Instinctively, the terror birds stopped advancing upon Helen, whirling around to see the next newcomer. Upon seeing that it was a mammoth, they paused – and Helen literally sprung into action, quickly covering the distance between and the terror bird on the right and closing the leash on its neck.

Immediately, the terror bird whirled around, its beak striking downwards – but Helen was already at its partner, snapping a least around _its_ neck as well, and then running away, still holding on the leashes, yelling to Abby:

"Tell your mammoth to _catch_!"

And Abby did just that: immediately, the mammoth's trunk lashed out, catching... the ends of the leashes, while Helen herself scurried to relative safety under the mammoth's underbelly.

For their parts, the terror birds, who began to chase Helen (or rather, they couldn't help but chase Helen, for she held their new leashes) abruptly stopped, and began to back away from the mammoth.

The mammoth harrumphed. The terror birds abruptly stopped.

"Now, Abby and her friend will take them for a short walk," Helen exclaimed abruptly, "and ensure that the animals begin to get a general 'feel' for each other, so to speak. Personally, I think that as long as it keeps basically brief, the whole 'awe' factor will be enough to get us through to Dragon the dinosaur."

"No arguments here," Connor said thoughtfully. "Um, what's that smell-"

"Me," Helen said curtly. "I tend to sweat a lot when dealing with potentially dangerous animals. I'm off to take a bath. You'll have to figure the rest of the program without me for a while at least."

And that was what they did – but that is another story.

_The end?_


End file.
